Pros

Cons

Bottom Line

The new Razer Blade offers some exciting updates like GTX 1070 graphics and a bigger display, all while keeping the thin form factor and top-notch build quality.

19 Jun 2018Matthew Buzzi

Razer first rolled out its Blade five years ago, coming closer than any machine before to the then-fantastical ideal of a thin, attractive gaming laptop. In a category beset by bulky builds and gaudy aesthetics, the Blade set the bar: fast, lithe, and good-looking. The market has caught up, thanks to Nvidia's Max-Q graphics technology, but Razer is changing the game again. The 2018 Blade (starts at $1,899.99; $2,599.99 as tested) adopts a Max-Q-based design, and while it's spendy, it executes the concept better than any contender. The Blade combines category-leading performance, backed by a GeForce GTX 1070 graphics chip and a six-core, eighth-generation Intel CPU, but now with a larger screen (15.6 inches, up from 14 inches) and thin bezels. It's today's best super-slim gaming laptop in terms of both power and aesthetics, and it seizes our Editors' Choice award.

Honing a Classic Design

The 2018 Blade maintains the same sleek, machined-aluminum chassis that first turned heads on its debut, all-black with the lime-green "Razer snakes" logo on the lid. But, unlike many of Razer's recent laptop updates that focused on internal improvements, Razer made some major design changes this time around.

The Blade has ditched its thicker bezels and 14-inch display for thin screen borders and a much roomier 15.6-inch screen. Despite the larger display, the laptop's overall size didn't change much. (It's only trivially wider.) That's because fitting in the bigger screen was made possible, mostly, by trimming down the bezel.

The laptop measures 0.68 by 13.98 by 9.25 inches (HWD), actually a few hairs thinner than the 14-inch 2017 model's 0.7-by-13.6-by-9.3-inch dimensions. The new internals do add some heft (4.63 pounds, up from 4.16 pounds), but the Blade is still one of the slimmest and most portable gaming laptops out there. Formerly, the Blade was just about the only thin gaming laptop, but Nvidia's Max-Q initiative changed that.

Max-Q design, in a nutshell, allows for slightly tuned-down versions of high-end graphics chips that can fit in smaller laptops without overheating, allowing manufacturers to build slimmer gaming machines. Top options of this kind include the Origin PC EVO15-S and the Asus ROG Zephyrus, and while their arrival on the scene has made the Blade a bit less special, Razer has adopted Max-Q for additional benefits. For one thing, thanks to Max-Q, this year's thinner chassis can accommodate a GeForce GTX 1070 chip; the 2017 model topped out at a GTX 1060. (Note that the GTX 1060 is still an option for the 2018 Blade, if you want to spend less.)

Razer is offering multiple configurations for the 2018 Blade at launch, with a couple more options to go live when ready later this month. The test unit PCMag received is the $2,599 configuration, which nets you a 1080p (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) display with a 144Hz refresh rate, a Max-Q-tweaked Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070, and a 512GB solid-state drive (SSD). You can tick down the storage on that unit to 256GB to reduce the overall configuration price to $2,399.

A notch further down in the offerings is a $2,199 model with the same screen, but a GeForce GTX 1060 and 512GB of storage. The two soon-to-come configurations will be the least and most expensive when they launch: The former will be an $1,899 model with a 60Hz 1080p screen, a GeForce GTX 1060, and a 256GB SSD, the latter a $2,899 4K touch-screen model with a GeForce GTX 1070 and a 512GB SSD.

These options provide enough variety for different budgets, but even the $1,899 ground floor is pretty high, and you're paying a premium for the slim, high-quality construction. You can get a gaming laptop with a GeForce GTX 1060 for about $1,000 less than the $2,199 Blade, so to pay that much for a GTX 1060, you had better be sure you want and need the super-portable aspect of the Blade.

Our $2,599 model is a bit more reasonable given its GeForce GTX 1070 chip, and in both cases having 512GB of solid-state storage definitely adds to the cost. But on the whole, you're paying for more than the sum of the components with the Blade. That's generally true for any laptop prioritizing thinness—the Origin EVO15-S is expensive, too—so at least the Blade nets you a best-in-class design for the extra bucks.

Primo Screen, Stunning Keys

As for the quality of the display itself—well, it's a beauty. It has a matte finish to dull reflections, and it offers exceptional offsides viewing angles. I note virtually no picture-quality degradation when looking from out wide. The colors are vibrant, and the picture is sharp, even if the matte finish is less eye-catching than a shiny glass display.

Keeping the resolution at 1080p but offering a 144Hz refresh rate is a smart, gamer-focused move that will please the performance-obsessed out there. That less-demanding resolution will keep frame rates high, while the higher refresh rate (standard screens are 60Hz) will make game animations and effects look smoother than average and let you leverage frame rates above 60 frames per second (fps).

Also, the new 15.6-inch panel size makes a big difference, as the 14-inch size of the previous Blades was always a bit of an outlier. A 15.6-inch screen is already too small for some gaming-laptop shoppers, hence the popularity of 17-inchers. So, boosting the Blade to that more standard screen size (and again, without making the laptop much bigger than its 14-inch ancestor) was a good move.

The keyboard is equipped with Razer's signature Chroma backlighting, which is customizable with millions of colors and a handful of effects. The Synapse software for changing those settings is one of the most intuitive such programs from any manufacturer. (Of course, it helps that Razer is also a longtime leading maker of desktop gaming gear.) The newest version of Synapse comes installed on the Blade, and with some tutorials and clearly marked sections, it makes altering the effects easy to understand. You can apply to each key a different color and effect, should you like, or choose from a variety of presets (and further alter them, as well).

The keys are also satisfying to type on—not mechanical, like the ones on the larger Razer Blade Pro—but responsive, smooth, and quiet. The glass-topped touchpad feels nice to use, is very responsive to panning and presses, and is quite roomy.

On either side of the keyboard is a speaker grille. I have an issue with the speakers, but it's not about their sound quality. In my trials, the maximum volume level was loud, and while the sound lacks much bass, the speakers are perfectly serviceable. It's the visual design that bothers me, as the grille speaker-outlet strips look a tad dated and out of place with the slick, modern design of the rest of the laptop.

I've held this opinion for the last few iterations of the Blade and Blade Stealth, and it seems especially prominent on this slim, thin-bezeled machine. When a colleague made a similar comment while he was checking out the Blade, I knew it wasn't just me. It's not a deal breaker, of course, but it borders on a blemish for an otherwise sharp-looking laptop.

You don't get a huge number of ports on the system, but the Blade has you covered for the basics. The chassis has three USB 3.1 ports, one USB Type-C port (with support for Thunderbolt 3), a 3.5mm combo (mic/headphone) audio jack, and mini-DisplayPort and HDMI outputs. Using the latter outputs plus Thunderbolt, it's possible to connect to up to three external displays, for a whole lot more screen real estate at home.

The Blade also offers dual-band wireless and Bluetooth 5. Razer covers its laptops with a one-year warranty.

Pack-Leading Power

The wait for a new Blade was worth it, as Razer could outfit its flagship device with Intel's latest processors, which have just started coming to the usual-suspect lines of laptops.

The eighth-generation Core i7-8750H in this laptop, combined with 16GB of memory and the GeForce GTX 1070, really sang on our benchmark tests, as you can see on the PCMag productivity and media-crunching tests...

Its PCMark 8 score is tops among the Origin EVO15-S, the Falcon Northwest TLX, the Asus ROG Zephyrus, and the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin. The story was the same on the multimedia tests—the Blade topped the pile, with an especially impressive Cinebench score. Chalk that up to the processor.

The Core i7-8750H is a six-core, 12-thread beast, recently introduced and likely to trounce all previous-gen comers on tests that leverage high core/thread counts. (It even outpaced the MSI model with the same chip, suggesting potentially better thermal management in the Blade.) The takeaway: This fresh processor is proficient for general and media use, and notably better than the previous generation.

The Max-Q version of the GeForce GTX 1070 isn't as powerful as the standard version (we've noticed a meaningful performance drop in other systems), but it's still a strong card, as evidenced by the PCMag graphics tests...

The 3DMark Cloud Gate and Fire Strike Extreme scores are right in line with the rest of this competitive set, which mostly opted for the same graphics chip. Standard GTX 1070 chips have been generally capable of scores in the 7,000-point range on Fire Strike Extreme—not a huge gulf, but a noteworthy difference.

The Heaven and Valley tests provide an idea of the frame rates you can expect while gaming. With these set to ultra-quality settings, the Blade averaged 93 frames per second (fps) and 100fps, respectively. That's clearly well above the target 60fps, and the more headroom you have, the better. It means the most demanding games likely won't dip below 60fps on maximum settings during especially frenetic moments, and it future-proofs you for a few years down the line as titles gradually become more taxing. The only system that performed better than the Blade on the 3D tests is the Asus ROG Zephyrus, a $3,000 laptop carrying a Max-Q GTX 1080.

The Max-Q GTX 1070 is more than adequate for 1080p gaming, and since you can't push the resolution higher than that (unless you opt for the coming 4K model), it's a fine fit. Whether the performance concession from a standard GTX 1070 for a more portable form factor is worth it depends on your use case and budget, but you'll definitely want to take it into account while shopping.

Though I wasn't able to test a GTX 1060 model, I feel confident from my testing experience that opting for one of the less expensive GTX 1060 configs will give you much less margin for maintaining the ideal 60fps target, and in some cases will require you to turn down a few graphics settings to stay above it.

Battery life on the Blade is above average for a gaming laptop, as we've come to expect from Razer systems. It lasted for 7 hours and 36 minutes on our video-playback rundown test, the best of any Max-Q laptop to date. MSI's GS65 Stealth Thin previously made a big improvement for the category at 7:14, seeing as before that, the Falcon Northwest TLX clocked in at 5:13, the EVO15-S at 4:27, and the ROG Zephyrus at just 2:31.

The Blade's battery may not approach that of many non-gaming ultraportables, some of which easily reach double-digit hours, but it's long enough to trust it off the charger while commuting, working away from your desk, or even on a flight.

The Blade: Back on Top

The 2018 Razer Blade represents further refinement of one of the best gaming laptops out there, from the standpoints of both design and performance. It's light, long-lasting, powerful, and attractive, all factors that let it lord over the pack.

Its Max-Q GeForce GTX 1070 makes fewer performance concessions than some of the competition, while the new six-core processor is whip-quick. The Origin EVO15-S packs more storage, with a huge 2TB drive plus an SSD, and is a little less expensive, given the configurations received for our testing. That said, the Blade delivers superior performance, a better screen, support for Thunderbolt 3, and a nicer build.

That last point—the look—is the most subjective, of course. But we would side with the all-metal Blade and its quality touchpad, keyboard, and per-key keyboard lighting. It's a close-run race, and the Blade will cost you, but it earns our Editors' Choice for highly portable, high-end gaming laptops.

Razer Blade (2018)

Bottom Line: The 2018 Razer Blade redefines the category it inspired: the super-slim, powerful gaming laptop. The best thin design in the business now packs a roomier 15.6-inch display and cutting-edge components.

More Inside PCMag.com

About the Author

Matthew Buzzi is a junior analyst on the Hardware team at PCMag. Matthew graduated from Iona College with a degree in Mass Communications/Journalism. He interned for a college semester at Kotaku, writing about gaming. He has written about technology and video game news, as well as hardware and gaming reviews. In his free time, he likes to go out with friends, watch and discuss sports, play video games, read too much Twitter, and obsessively manage any fantasy sports leagues he's involved in. See Full Bio